Inspiring

Innovation in mobility for the visually impaired thanks to WeWALK, a revolutionary smart cane!  Almost 1 in every 25 people is visually impaired. That’s 250 million people worldwide. Of these, 50 million use a cane. We’ve all walked past someone at some point, making their way confidently with a white cane, and considered how difficult and frightening we would find it to have to ...
Read Post »

Cracked It, is a social enterprise staffed by young ex-offenders and at-risk youths, teaching them marketable phone repair skills and providing the means and opportunity to make money. For things that can cost insane amounts of money, smartphones certainly tend to break a lot. Did you drop your phone? The screen is broken. Sit on it? The screen’s broken. Look at it too hard? Screen’s ...
Read Post »

Afterbook - the startup that's on a mission to help us all "create a beautiful home for the memoirs of the ones we love"... Founded by a father and daughter looking for a way to better remember their lost wife and mother, Afterbook is a way of capturing a life story for posterity. A way for those left behind after a loved one dies to manage their grief, cope with the incessant normality...
Read Post »

Pitching your startup on stage can be tough going indeed - but here’s some startup pitch inspiration to keep all prospective 'startup pitchers' going, care of our very own co-founder, Alastair Cameron. I was reminded last week of an epic achievement at the first upSTART startup pitch competition that we ran and hosted at Digital DNA, when I saw the hashtag of  #RamadanMubarak trending....
Read Post »

Kodama - The innovative French startup that's making 3D creation easier than ever before with their 3D game system that offers everybody a new way to interact with screens. The world of 3D design is evolving. Simply sitting with a mouse or tablet and stylus, building 3D objects on a 2D plane is all well and good, but what if all you have to do to go from working on your charac...
Read Post »

Chip[s] Board - The startup that's on a mission to find value where others see waste with their eco-friendly material made out of potato peel...It’s slow work, but the world is going through the process of realising that we need to rely more on green, eco-friendly, sustainable...well, everything possible, and making the switch where viable. Building materials, furniture, and cutlery might no...
Read Post »

Codez Academy understands that computer science has become as relevant a subject as Maths and English. Here's how they aim to empower the young people of Wales to embrace the world of code and coding.  While most ICT courses give a basic overview on computer use, Codez Academy's goal is to really get into the heart of it and teach young people how to build computer programmes, not just how t...
Read Post »

Continuing our series of business articles relating to homelessness and vulnerable people, we take a look at two social good platforms focused on housing. These platforms are both benefiting from funding from Nesta’s ShareLab Fund, a fund supporting organisations to develop and test business models that make an impact on social issues. A look at Fairbnb With 78,180 families ...
Read Post »

Last week, facilitated by Hatch Enterprise and YSYS, 25 women of colour - all entrepreneurs and founders, came together to discuss diversifying entrepreneurship in London and the necessary support and provision of services women of colour need to overcome barriers to succeed in business. It is fair to say that there is still some work to do both within the UK and more specifically within the cont...
Read Post »

Joel Silverman is the co-founder of KidsKnowBest. With zero background in media/kids/tech, and a career as a Mayfair hairdresser he pitched and raised investment from the president of the Marriott Group. Joel explains all... "Being a Mayfair hairdresser is not only an amazing career, it also helps open doors from ideas you dream of. I am co-founder of KidsKnowBest, together with my long time frie...
Read Post »

Florence - a marketplace for nurses to find shifts in hospitals and nursing homes and vice-versa, empowers care homes and nurses to connect via an online platform that dramatically reduces the cost of recruitment for the homes whilst helping nurses book higher paying shifts online. Pain Point - The UK healthcare system is endemically short of staff and often reliant on recruitment agencies t...
Read Post »

Bigmoose Coffee Co. - The Welsh coffee shop that's on a mission to help the homeless and vulnerable in Cardiff We have written previously about startups helping the homeless get into work, with the likes of Beam and TAP. With around 280,000 homeless people in the UK alone, homelessness is a big issue (no pun intended) that needs to be addressed, and more and more startups are appearing to do just...
Read Post »